Tracphone – Cheap Solution for a Child’s First Cell Phone – When I called Verizon, I was surprised that they had no good options for a child’s starter phone. The best deal I could get was $30/month.
My son is 13. At this age, I see no need for adding him to our Verizon plan at $30/month. I don’t want him using this phone the same way my husband and I do. There’s no need for him to be tapping into the data package frequently or sending multiple texts in a day.
When I called Verizon, I was surprised that they had no good options for a child’s starter phone. The best deal I could get was $30/month. Huge lost opportunity on their part. I honestly believe that cell phone companies and providers should offer cheaper add-ons for families. So I began researching other cell phone options for kids. I wanted a cheap plan with a phone that I wasn’t going to have a heart attack over if he dropped it. Plus, I didn’t want a contract. An thirteen year old’s phone usage varies greatly from a fifteen year old, so a two year contract is a bad idea.
I found many cell phone plans still average out to be about $30/month. I finally decided to look into the Tracfone as a cheaper option for child’s first cell phone.
The Tracfone plan offers up super cheap phones. Some are mere pennies and some are nicer and upwards around $20+. I did not want an Android style phone with the delicate glass face. I found an old style open face phone with a slide out QWERTY keypad on the underneath side. It was $19.99. And, the phone comes with triple minutes. So every time you add minutes to the plan, you get triple the minutes you paid for. For example, you pay for 50 minutes per month but actually get 150.
There are several different options for adding minutes. You can purchase the minutes as you go, our you can sign up for an automated plan. Either way, the options are pretty good if you’re looking for a plan for limited use. Whatever minutes you don’t use in a given period will carry over.
There are no activation fees either. This beats the stupid $35 charge that gets added to your brand new $200 phone and $70 monthly plan with the major carriers. But, I did hear that if you run out of minutes before your term is up, you need to add more minutes or you may lose your phone number.
We decided to go Tracphone cell phone route as a present for our son. We ordered the phone and they shipped it out for free FedEx overnight. Now we just go back online to register the phone, get a number, and sign up for a plan.
I’m looking forward to the convenience of our son (finally) having a Tracphone. Something tells me I’ll be calling him more than the other way around.
